5* Review: I Need You (Starting Out #3) Jane Lark

Guilt can eat away at you, but love can cut like a knife…

Lusting after his best friend’s girlfriend is a cliché Billy knows well – it’s the tightrope he’s walked for years. But now Jason and Lindy have broken up and Billy can’t help but be there for the girl he’s loved from afar for so long. She’s hurting.

Fighting to find a road to the future, Lindy’s heart hurts. She’s trying to escape the truth, but Billy keeps making her face it – and it’s ugly. How can she keep living when everything is made of glass and it keeps shattering?

Her one constant is Billy. Only, rebound isn’t his style and when Lindy starts to see him in a different light, he just can’t trust her. He’s no one’s second best.

Amazon UK

I have read and enjoyed all the ‘Starting Out’ books. This one is the most poignant and realistic and therefore for me, the most enjoyable. ‘I Found You’, the first book in the series introduced Billy and Lindy and neither came across as particularly likeable. ‘I Need You’ is their story and you don’t have to read very much of this book to realise why they both acted so badly in the first book.

Billy loves Lindy. They met at school and he accepted her friendship, no matter how painful it was, rather than lose her when she hooked up with his best mate Jason. Lindy is angry and desperate when Jason dumps her for his soul mate Rachel but her pain is more complicated than Billy first surmises. Billy puts his life on hold to stop Lindy’s downward spiral but she doesn’t share all her pain with him and the time they spend together takes its toll on his tender heart.

The chemistry between the two friends is a slow sizzle and their love story is full of pain, fear and humour. Billy truly awakens Lindy to her full potential, in every way but is it enough for them to be together, or is Lindy’s need to escape parts of her life too much for Billy to repair?

The story unfolds beautifully and it highlights the importance of forgiveness, envy and how hard you have to work to find true love. Lindy is the character that travels the furthest in this story and the one I admired the most at the end.

‘I Need You’ is a lovely feel good read.

I received a copy of this book from Harper Impulse via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Here’s my review of I Found You and Just You the first two books in the series.